51 



sociated from the university, as is sometimes done. We 

 think, however, that in connecting the departments of 

 agricultural chemistry, of chemical analysis, and of 

 civil engineering, with the general department of 

 philosophy, and making the whole one of the pro- 

 fessional schools connected with the college, the 

 corporation have acted with the wisdom which has 

 uniformly characterized their proceedings. It places 

 the interests of the higher education of our land in the 

 hands of those who will give to it an elevated and liberal 

 character. In all these views of the corporation Prof. 

 Norton fully acquiesced. Indeed, his own education, 

 (of which the corporation had expressed their estimate, 

 by conferring upon him the honorary degree of Master 

 of Arts,) had been of too liberal a kind — in point of time 

 equal to the full academical and professional course, and 

 in point of acquisition and discipline not inferior to that 

 of our first scholars — to permit him to wish for a low 

 standard. It was entirely accordant with his wishes, 

 that the requisitions for the degree in this department 

 were made high. 



Mr. Norton returned to Europe in the fall of 1 846, and 

 entered the laboratory of Mulder, at Utrecht. His 

 progress here was rapid and satisfactory. He went 

 forward in his analyses with somewhat of the confidence 

 of a master, and he frequently speaks in his letters, with 



